Stepped-up enforcement just the ticket for keeping streets free of congestion

Updated 7:42 am, Friday, December 28, 2012

Public Service Officer Trisha Lossi checks for parking violators with the city's new Suzuki on State Street in Albany, N.Y. Dec 18, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Public Service Officer Trisha Lossi checks for parking violators with the city's new Suzuki on State Street in Albany, N.Y. Dec 18, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

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Public Service Officer Trisha Lossi goes on patrol for parking violators in the city's new Suzuki on State Street in Albany, N.Y. Dec 18, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Public Service Officer Trisha Lossi goes on patrol for parking violators in the city's new Suzuki on State Street in Albany, N.Y. Dec 18, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

City beefs up its illegal-parking beat

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ALBANY — Some Quail Street residents weren't thrilled about the addition last year of a CDTA bus route to their stretch of Pine Hills, a narrow, largely residential two-way street.

But one of the most nettlesome problems, it turns out, isn't the commotion of the buses lumbering along the Mid City Belt.

It's geometry.

Quail is one of many residential streets in the city with alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules — rules that some motorists openly ignore, leaving the road too narrow for two-way traffic and dangerously close to impassable for buses and trucks.

Factor in the numerous traffic lights, the nearby ambulance station and the choking effects of winter snow storms and those backups become more than just a nuisance, said Tammie Barnhart, who has lived on the block between Myrtle and Park avenues for six years.

"It was every week for a while. Everybody was just parking wherever they wanted to on both sides," said Barnhart, who despite having the relative Pine Hills luxury of a driveway said she is still not immune to the gridlock the scofflaws cause. "I'm sitting in my driveway for five minutes because I can't get out. It just creates a lot of congestion."

Police say they have heard the complaints from Quail Street and elsewhere in the city's more suburban neighborhoods and are stepping up enforcement of parking rules in those areas, even as they also gear up for the new downtown residential permit parking system.

To aid that effort, the department has assigned four of its 19 public service officers to evening and overnight shifts and purchased two new cars — pint-sized Suzuki SX4s — to ferry them about the city's outlying neighborhoods, where foot patrols are less efficient and often impractical, Assistant Chief Brendan Cox said.

By day, the new vehicles will help the officers move about the three zones near the Capitol that will be covered by the new residential permit parking system, which is expected to take effect Jan. 15 and will be enforced between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays.

By night — when many of the alternate-side change-overs occur — the cars will allow the officers to roam the outlying neighborhoods, checking complaints about blocked driveways, fire hydrants and alternate-side scofflaws while allowing police officers to focus on emergency calls, Cox said.

Two of the overnight parking officers are assigned to South Station, two are assigned to Center Station.

When winter storms force the city to declare a snow emergency — as happened Thursday — the overnight officers will also help clear the way for snowplow crews racing to make narrow streets passable.

What the stepped-up enforcement isn't about, Cox stressed, is money.

"It really has nothing to do with that," he said. "It has to do with freeing up our officers to stop crime from happening, to solve problems and to work with the community."

In fact, the city budget projects a drop in revenue from parking fines next year despite the new permit system, violations of which will come with a $50 citation.

Cox said the hope is that the stepped-up enforcement will prompt compliance, clearing the way for street cleaners, buses, garbage trucks and emergency vehicles — especially as winter approaches and the city's narrow streets could become even more crowded because of snow drifts.

"If we're not able to enforce those move-overs then people get used to this idea of, 'I can just stay. It's no big deal,'" Cox said. "We don't enforce parking regulations just because we want to ticket people. We do it because we want to get compliance, especially in the outlying areas. If we have compliance, then we've won."

While Barnhart said part of the problem is that some people openly ignore the parking rules, she said it might also help to improve signage.

One sign near her home, she noted, is not only blocked by foliage during the warmer months but faded almost beyond legibility.